Ex-KM women’s editor dies at 93
Jessie Orrin, former women’s editor of the KM Group newspapers for nearly 20 years, has died aged 93.
She played a key role in developing pages for female readers in the 1960s and 1970s, and interviewed famous personalities – including Margaret Thatcher before she became prime minister.
Celebrities such as film stars Susan Hampshire and Susannah York appeared often in her columns, but Mrs Orrin ensured her pages were relevant to the widest range of female readers in an age when women were increasingly combining careers with married life.
She covered hard news issues as well as fashion, beauty and entertainment. Mrs Orrin was also instrumental in running a successful campaign in the Kent Messenger to open a refuge in Maidstone for women suffering from domestic violence.
Born on July 9, 1923, she spent her childhood at Syon Park House, Isleworth, and won a scholarship to nearby Gumley House school, where she was sports captain.
She began her career at Penguin Books, as secretary for the founder and company head, Sir Allen Lane. He encouraged her to enter journalism, and she trained during the war as a reporter with the Derby Evening Telegraph.
She had moved to the Midlands to be near her husband, Ernest Orrin, who had been posted there in the Army.
Mrs Orrin stopped full-time journalism to have her children, John and Marilyn, but after moving to Sutton Valence she was a regular KM Group contributor before becoming women’s editor.
Mr Orrin was sales manager with the Tilling-Stevens engineering company in Maidstone.
After retirement, the couple moved to the West Country, living for nearly 30 years in the Dorset village of Chetnole, near Sherborne.
Mrs Orrin managed an antique shop in Sherborne until she was 80, and moved to the town after her husband died in 2004, soon after they had celebrated their diamond wedding anniversary.
She died on August 9 at a care home in Uppingham, Rutland, near the home of her daughter, Marilyn Clayton. A funeral in the Midlands will be followed by a service at Chetnole on October 7.
As well as her son and daughter, Mrs Orrin is survived by three grand-daughters. Her son, retired university lecturer Dr John Orrin, and his wife live at Marden.